Affleck as Batman Ok
by J.D. Cook
Time to address this Batman nonsense.
First off to the people saying why won’t Christian Bale come back? Look back at his time as Batman. Yes he produced the three best Batman films, and possibly the best superhero film ever in The Dark Knight, but he also had a fellow actor Heath Ledger pass away and then a maniac shot up a theater during the Dark Knight Rises premiere. Now obviously Bale had nothing to do with these tragedies but I’m sure they weigh heavily on him and everyone closely associated with the Dark Knight trilogy. So can you blame him for not wanting to return to the role?
Now onto this hilarious casting! All I can think is that the Warner Brothers and DC executives were thinking directly about Chris Evans when they made this casting call. Evans went from being the Human Torch in two mediocre Fantastic Four films to being an excellent Captain America. Unfortunately I unlike Chris Evans, Ben Affleck was not the best part of the mediocre Daredevil film. He was pretty darn bland as Matt Murdock, maybe you can blame the script but honestly it felt right except for the playground fight scene with Electra. It was dark, gritty, and had a bat shit crazy performance by Colin Farrell as Bullseye. So I’m not really sure what the reasoning for this casting was besides Ben Affleck has been in a superhero film with a dark tone somewhat similar to what Batman’s should be.
That said I do think Affleck has grown as an actor since Daredevil and he does have dark hair and a tall build so I think he’s worth giving a chance as Batman. My true hope is that he lives up to what people are saying and understands the character because I’m tired of the hyper real psychological Batman. I want a more comic rooted Batman that while dark could possibly appear with a young Robin in the future. On that note wouldn’t it be great if the Joker killed Jason Todd at the end of a Batman film only to have Todd return as the mysterious Red Hood in the next film? Although I guess that is sort of being done in Captain America: The Winter Soldier. Man it just seems like Chris Evans and Marvel are five steps ahead of DC and Affleck. Well anyone I’m willing to check out the movie if Affleck dawns a black and grey suit instead of the all black rubber suits Bale wore.
Also if DC follows my idea about Batman this will only be a one movie thing! So listen to me DC!
Side Note : It’s really hilarious watching internet reactions to things. They are so predictable it’s kind of sad. The only thing that really annoyed me was when people started comparing the response to Affleck to the response to Ledger’s casting. It’s really disgusting when people start using the dead to defend their own thoughts. There is just something distasteful about it. If you like Affleck as Batman that’s fine but why do you have to use Ledger’s memory to justify it? Maybe I’m crazy but that really rubbed me the wrong way.